Welcome to a hub article on the influences of music, recording artists and movie themes from the mid-50s and from subsequent decades. Find out, if you don't know, how the fun was all used up, and...get ready to Rock!

"Rock Around the Clock" (Bill Haley and the Comets) had everyone dancing 'around the clock' and around the block as well. Martha and the Vendellas had us "Dancing in the Street"; and a bunch of West Coast guys had us surfing USA and from Hawaii to the shores of Peru. But these groups were far from being the only "kids on the block"...like, the original recording of........

Invite me to tweet with you on Twitter!

Elvis influenced the music era to no end (reference: "Jail House Rock"), and he had plenty of accomplices too. But, everyone remembers that hit...and that video...his one type of dance style that had to be "censored"; but, the beat went on, and not just with Sonny and Cher.

A commerical imitates this hit recorded by the Cordettes, a female quartet:

While you listen to the crystal clear voices of those four young ladies, my most memorable recall of this hit is from my hometown and two kids, older brother and younger sister, Dennis and Eileen Lally. We little girls started calling Dennis "lollipop". In fact, we sang the song! And he was so good about it, took it in all good fun and then, one day.....

Eileen, who was around my age, told us to knock it off; and we respected that. We were snow sleding on Davis Hill when she had her say.

They were a great brother-and-sister example in many ways. Although I didn't stay in touch with them, if someone should know of them, please give them my very best, and let them know the Lollipop video is my toast to their great example.

And say...if you can leave a comment (below), or have one of the Lally "kids" leave one, it would be fantastic!

It subsequent years, this hit came to influence the direction of my life. The reason can wait for what must be said on behalf of young Ritchie Valens, God rest his soul.

Mr. Valens had other hits besides La Bamba, like Donna and Let's Go. He was versitile, innovative. Had he managed to survive the plane crash well enough, the face of popular music would have been different.

He and his music helped influence the direction of my life. For example: when I asked my dad what language I should take in high school (besides manadory Latin), as a head accountant to a large conglomorate corporation, he advised on Spanish because he knew there would be a larger Spanish-speaking population in the USA. This was based on accounting forecasts. And so, I took Spanish.

A number of years later, I lived and worked in South America and I learned to speak Spanish fluently. The country Mr. Valens was from is the country I was in and, having had the honor to know Mr. Valens through his music, I had the beginnings of the ability to want to understand those in his native country. For me, Ritchie Valens (Valenzuela) is the nearest we can get to a "Venezuelan Ambassador to American Music".

In case anyone needs an introduction, it's Chubby Checker, from Philadelphia!

If it weren't for his Twist, I might not have been able dance. I couldn't get any dance but the polka and the waltz! But, with a year of the Twist under my belt, I picked up every new dance and picked up retrospectively on the Lindy (the Foxtrot in Big Band-eez).

The influence Cubby Checker's Twist had on me added to my ability as a writer: have fun and enjoy dancing, rockin' and being The Rockin' Writer!

I recall the school gymnasium dances with this song. We did a New York-style Stomp to the Bristol Stomp. It worked. However, the kids in my school had to be invited to such dances by kids who attended public schools. And the kids (all girls) in my high school knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Sisters in our school didn't like the Stomp...or the Twist, or the Waddle, or the Watusi. But, they didn't mind the Lindy. Guess it's 'cause most of them had been Big Band fans.

A group of us attended one of Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs' appearances. It's little wonder my hearing's going. It was wild!...and a great time.

Yeah...we rocked to all of it. As stated: we used up all the fun. But that's OK 'cause, we created it. It's just that, anymore, what we did all night takes us all night to do.

Hollywood got involved

And you know what that means......

Dance was still staying alive...

Not just the Beatles, the Dave Clark Five and scores of other such groups, but also.....

Hits like this one helped spur on the "back to nature" movement of the late-60s, early-70s, when early Baby Boombers headed for the country or "back to the 'garden'" in one way or another.

I had this album with me when I lived in South America. English was not on TV or radio, nor was it spoken to me. Until I learned to speak Spanish fluently (3-4 months), I was in communication isolation. It was like being deaf and not being able to speak. If it weren't for this album, and a few others by other artists, I would have been totally isolated from my language and my culture.

It's my understanding that reggae was discovered accidentally. One of the drums in Bob Marley's group was broken, or became broken during a jam session. Since the session was being recorded, the unique sound was picked up and became reggae. To me, it's beat is close to the human heart rate and the effect is likened to a feeling of abundant flow.

But reggae is more than the beat, at least it certainly is coupled with the melody of Red Red Wine. Apply your own words, like "Oh my Lord, stay close to me". Use your words throughout the song. And, listen to how Marley's recording captures the feeling of the Caribbean in the instrumentals in this version, and I know that special feeling because I lived along the Spanish Main (shores of the Caribbean) when I lived in South America.

Listen to the gentle, breezy sounds in the background. That sound is El Caribe!

This hit brings back memories of La Playa Supi, not far south of Aruba. Is anyone from Coro, Venezuela listening in? Maybe you know the Ruben Cham family, or the Pompeyo Reyes family. If so, tell them the mother of Henry's child salutes them! {Salutos della madre della hija primera de Henry...y, esta es la mas esparanza y petition de ella: "Bendiciones Del Senor a todos.")

Reggae on orchestra strings! Like Barney Fife said, "If that don't beat all!" (pun intended) And this combination echoes back to some of the of early Rock n Roll sounds, sounds of which had also been in "bubble gum" music.

That Alpha female! She's the mover and the shaker in any relationship so, move over folks. We're not talking "Cinderella". Try the Amazon Tribe, or Scarlett O'Hara.

Face it: fun music and dancing are highlights of wedding receptions and other memorable celebrations. I knew a bride of exceptional dancing ability who danced this hit with the groom of average dancing ability, and she teased him with "U can't touch this" (meaning, her dancing ability). It was a riot!

...to the other flip side: Songs, Recording Artists and Movie Themes that inspire

The series Music of the world:

Songs, Recording Artists and Movie Themes that inspire

Mary Travers: A Tribute to A Music Legend